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Futures Hall of Fame 2017

On March 16, 2017, FIA announced the induction of 14 members into the FIA Futures Hall of Fame. They join 131 other honorees in the Hall of Fame, which was established in 2005 on the occasion of FIA’s 50th anniversary. The 14 new members were honored at an awards ceremony during the 42nd annual International Futures Industry Conference in Boca Raton, Fla.

“Our industry has a long tradition of problem-solving, innovation and collaboration, said Walt Lukken, president and CEO of FIA. “We established the FIA Futures Hall of Fame to recognize the men and women who have made exceptional contributions to the growth and development of the futures and options business. This year’s inductees represent advocates, policymakers, and visionaries who have provided the leadership and support necessary to keep growing our industry. I am honored to present them with this recognition.”

Mary Ann Burns

Futures Hall of Fame 2017

A background in journalism and a fascination for futures made for a winning combination in Mary Ann Burns, who last year retired from FIA after 23 years with the association, most recently as Chief Operating Officer.

Mary Ann’s relationship with FIA began when she was hired to help with the first FIA Expo held on the CME floor 32 years ago. She continued to help with the event’s program and edited FIA’s magazine on a freelance basis in Chicago for a number of years, and was hired as head of communications moving to DC in 1993.

Her contribution to FIA and the industry goes way beyond events and communications, however. She spearheaded the creation of FIA Tech, the for-profit company created to help the industry face common issues through offerings such as eGAINS, eGUS and eRECS. She helped develop FIA’s and the industry’s response to a number of challenges including 9/11 and MF Global as well preparation for the euro and Y2K. She was also instrumental in steering the merger between FOA and FIA, which completed in January 2016.

Mary Ann was well liked and highly respected by the membership and the wider industry, actively engaging with the community through extensive participation in working groups, committees and divisions, serving also on the executive committees of the FIA Principal Traders Group and the FIA European Principal Traders Association, as well as overseeing FIA Tech as executive chair.

She has most recently been advising FIA on the development of a new training program, but now works full time supporting the Burns family-owned Old Ox Brewery.

As former FIA President John Damgard stated, “Mary Ann was the best hire I ever made.”

J. Robert Collins

Futures Hall of Fame 2017

The futures brokerage business is in Bob Collins’ blood. The Co-founder and Principal of independent FCM Rosenthal Collins, Bob joined Greene & Collins in 1961 - the family business co-founded nearly forty years earlier at the Chicago Board of Trade by his father John F. Collins.

Bob subsequently led the business through two successful mergers, the first with John S. Morris & Co in 1977, when he became chairman of the newly renamed Collins Commodities, and the second between Collins Commodities and Rosenthal & Co in 1988 to form what is now known as Rosenthal Collins Group LLC, a futures commission merchant with operations in Chicago, New York and London.

Bob has been a member of the Chicago Board of Trade, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, New York Mercantile Exchange and New York Board of Trade. He also served as President of MidAmerica Commodity Exchange, appointed in 1968, and has also served as Director, Chicago Board of Trade; Governor and Vice Chairman, Board of Trade Clearing Corporation; and on the Board of Directors of Millennium Trust Company and Evergreen Community Bank.

Eligio ‘Kika’ de la Garza, II

Futures Hall of Fame 2017

Kika de la Garza was an extraordinary legislator and a great friend to the futures industry. Born in 1927 in Mercedes, Texas, he was elected to Congress in 1964 and served as the Democratic representative for the 15th congressional district of Texas from 1965 to 1997.

From 1981 to 1994, he was the chairman of the House Agricultural Committee, leading the way in the reorganization of the Department of Agriculture. He also worked to improve trade with Mexico, lobbying to support the bill that enacted the North American Free Trade Agreement.

During his long tenure as chairman, Kika guided numerous bills through the House that strengthened and updated the Commodity Exchange Act, the statute that establishes the regulatory framework for U.S. futures markets. He fought to preserve the benefits that futures markets provide for farmers and ranchers and worked closely with industry to encourage sensible improvements to regulation but also worked to strengthen the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's enforcement powers and encourage better trading practices and customer protections.

Perhaps the greatest sign of his influence was his success in preserving the Agriculture Committee's authority over the futures industry at a time when financial futures were beginning their meteoric rise in popularity. He fended off several proposals to bring the futures industry under the authority of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which at that time oversaw the Securities and Exchange Commission, by arguing that the CFTC was better equipped than the SEC to understand the unique features of the futures markets and regulate them in a more cost-effective way.

William R. Eckhardt

Futures Hall of Fame 2017

William Eckhardt is the Chairman and CEO of Eckhardt Trading Company. He has traded futures professionally for over 40 years, beginning on the floor of the Mid America Commodity Exchange in 1974.

Since that beginning, Bill has conducted extensive research into the nature of futures price action, risk management, and the evolutionary optimization of futures trading systems. In the mid-1980s, along with Richard Dennis, he developed trading systems which they taught to a group of individuals that have become known as the "Turtles."

Bill is also engaged in research in a variety of other subjects including the illusory nature of time’s passage, the nature and status of physical properties, causality, the mind-body problem, decision theory, and paradoxes in probability theory. Following Bill’s contributions to the Physical Sciences Department at the University of Chicago, the University opened the William Eckhardt Research Center in 2015 to support distinctive programs in molecular engineering and astrophysics.

Thomas J. Hammond

Futures Hall of Fame 2017

Tom Hammond has spent nearly 40 years in the futures industry including more than 30 years at clearing houses. He spent the past 10 years as President of ICE Clear US and is currently focusing on global clearing strategy as he prepares to transition into retirement in June of 2017.

Prior to joining ICE in August of 2007, Tom was the Managing Director of Trading Operations at the Chicago Board of Trade (and later the CME Group). In this role, he helped lead the successful transition to, and ongoing operation of, the Common Clearing Link. Before joining the CBOT in 2003, Hammond was Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Interim CEO of the Board of Trade Clearing Corporation (BOTCC). There he successfully managed the development and implementation of integrated over-the-counter (OTC) clearing systems while expanding clearing services and functionality for regulated futures contract markets. Tom began his clearing career in 1984 managing the clearing house of the MidAmerican Commodity Exchange. Prior to that, he worked for two Chicago-based FCMs: Rosenthal and Co. (1980) and Goodman Manaster (1982).

Throughout his career, Tom has been integral to the development of clearing technology and risk management tools. He helped the industry manage over 14 clearing member defaults, such as Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and MF Global.

Tom has served on the Board of Directors for the Financial Services Division and the Chicago Operations Division of FIA and participated in the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank's Working Group on Financial Markets.

Hugo Jenkins

Futures Hall of Fame 2017

Hugo Jenkins has been involved in the futures industry for over 30 years. Having started his career at Merrill Lynch in London, he spent time at GNI and the London International Financial Futures Exchange, Liffe, followed by 15 years as Managing Director at FOA providing a voice for the European futures industry.

Throughout his tenure at FOA, Hugo’s focus was always on the provision of practical, cost-effective solutions to the challenges faced by the industry resulting in such services as the FOA’s Terms of Business documentation and associated legal opinions. He managed and steered countless working groups and committees on compliance, operations and trading issues, producing invaluable guidance to help member firms comply with increasingly complex rules and regulations. Hugo also partnered with colleagues at FIA on joint projects, helping to promote FIA Tech services in Europe and draft joint documentation, and ultimately helped manage the process that delivered FOA’s merger with FIA.

Hugo left FIA in April 2016 and recently joined the market surveillance software provider, Ancoa Software, as a Board Advisor.

Yoshio Kuno

Futures Hall of Fame 2017

Yoshio Kuno was at the forefront of the development of financial derivatives in Japan, with a diverse career as an end-user of derivatives as well as working for FCMs and exchanges and serving as an industry champion throughout the development of futures markets in the country.

While active in FX, FX options and fixed income futures at Bank of America in the mid-1980s, Kuno-san was busy lobbying Japanese regulators jointly with US exchanges and the FIA to enable Japanese investors to access the non-Japanese financial derivatives markets. When the door finally opened in 1987, he moved to Bank of America’s FCM subsidiary to serve Japanese financial institutional customers trading US and European listed derivatives markets.

After 11 years as General Manager of BofA’s Asian FCM business, Kuno-san joined CME Group in Tokyo in 1998 as Managing Director of Japan office. He also assisted in educating users in other Asia countries on the benefits of futures markets.

He joined Newedge as head of Japan from 2011 to March 2013 and subsequently joined Osaka Exchange Inc. under JPX Group as the advisor to OSE board.

Kuno-san served on many industry-related public missions on behalf of the Japanese Government Council and was a founding member and founding director of FIA Japan, serving as president from 2000 to 2007.

Rosemary T. McFadden

Futures Hall of Fame 2017

Rosemary McFadden began her Wall Street career as a staff attorney at the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), was promoted to Executive Vice President after one year and in the following year was elected President by the Board of Directors, becoming the first woman President of any stock or futures exchange in the United States.

Under her leadership from 1984-1989, Nymex became the world’s largest energy exchange, opened offices in Asia and Europe, and its crude oil contract became the price reference point and benchmark for spot and futures trading.

Following her time at the exchange, Rosemary served as a Senior Manager at Price Waterhouse with overseas assignments where she worked with representatives of the World Bank, IMF and US Agency for International Development. She advised national governments on rules, regulations and organizational structures for the development of their capital markets.

Rosemary joined the Pershing Division of Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette (DLJ) in 1997 where she was a primary advisor for international activities and developed the DLJdirect global market strategy and recommended joint venture partners to the DLJ Board of Directors. When DLJ was acquired by Credit Suisse, she continued as a Managing Director tasked with the responsibility for divesting these joint ventures.

After retiring from Wall Street, Rosemary was appointed Jersey City’s Deputy Mayor for Economic Development by Mayor Jerramiah Healy in 2007. She was appointed Chief of Staff in 2010, a position she held until July 2013 when a new Mayor was sworn into office.

Ulla Nilsson

Futures Hall of Fame 2017

Ulla Nilsson was founder and Global Head of SEB Futures, the FCM of Swedish bank Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken, from 1993 to 2010, one of only a small number of women to have run FCMs. While based in London, the business included sales broking desks in Frankfurt and Helsinki.

In 2004, Nilsson pioneered the SEB Futures project to become the first remote clearing member of Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Board of Trade from London. The move marked the firm’s first step in a strategy to create a global, central clearing operation with direct connection to all major derivatives exchanges from its derivatives center in London.

She was an industry representation to a number of exchanges including CME, CBOT, Eurex and NYSE Liffe.

Nilsson, who started out as an FX trader with Skanda Banken in her native Sweden, and spent time in Singapore as head of the bank’s trading and capital markets business, is now a firm anglophile, and Managing Director of the Swedish Chamber of Commerce, based in London.

Daniel J. Roth

Futures Hall of Fame 2017

Last year, Dan Roth announced his plans to retire after 13 years as President and Chief Executive Officer of National Futures Association (NFA), the independent self-regulatory organization, providing regulatory programs that safeguard the integrity of the derivatives market.

Dan joined NFA in September 1983 as an Attorney and has held a number of positions with increasing responsibilities, including General Counsel, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.

During the past 30 years at NFA, Dan has led the organization on major rulemaking and enforcement initiatives, including strengthened anti-fraud rules that have led to a dramatic drop in customer complaints in the U.S. futures industry. He has developed strong working relationships with international regulators, law enforcement agencies and members of the congressional committees that legislate the financial services industry.

Prior to coming to NFA, Dan served as Assistant State's Attorney in the Cook County State's Attorney's Office where he was a member of the Official Misconduct Task Force of the Special Prosecutions Bureau. Prior to that, he was an Associate Attorney in general litigation with the law firm of Sidley & Austin.

Dan holds a law degree from Loyola School of Law and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Arts from the University of Notre Dame. He has served as an adjunct professor at the Loyola School of Law and has authored numerous articles for futures industry publications.

Atsushi Saito

Futures Hall of Fame 2017

Atsushi Saito served for two years as Group CEO, President and Chief Executive Officer of Japan Exchange Group – the exchange group established from the business combination of Tokyo Stock Exchange Group and Osaka Securities Exchange – retiring in June 2015.

He previously served as the President and CEO of Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) from June 2007, and in August 2007 he became the first President and CEO of the Tokyo Stock Exchange Group, the holding company of the TSE and self-regulatory corporation of the exchange. In this capacity, Saito-san oversaw the merger of TSE and the Osaka Securities Exchange (now known as Osaka Exchange), to form JPX in January 2013. Prior to his time at TSE, he was the President and CEO of the Industrial Revitalization Corporation of Japan (IRCJ), a government sponsored group focused on turnaround investments. While at IRCJ, Saito-san demonstrated strong leadership in the revitalization of several Japanese companies.

In addition to these roles, he was a CEO of Sumitomo Life Investment Co. He previously held various executive roles at Nomura Securities and was appointed as Executive Vice President of Nomura in 1995.

Saito-san has been a Member of the Board of the World Federation of Exchanges; holds a B.A. in Commerce from Keio University, and is now Chairman of investment firm KKR Japan.

Margery F. Teller

Futures Hall of Fame 2017

Starting as an options clerk-trainee at O’Connor in 1984, Margery Teller spent over 20 years on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where she rose to prominence as the pit’s largest back-month Eurodollar trader.

At her zenith, she accounted for over 10% of the total Eurodollar volume and held open positions bigger than many money-center banks, leading the interest rate community to dub this diminutive woman "Large Marge.” She was so important to the liquidity of the pit that when she first retired in the wake of 9/11, the Merc devised an incentive program to lure her back. She continued to trade in the pit until 2006, when most of the volume shifted to the screen, leaving trading for good in 2010.

Today, she divides her time among various creative projects based on her experiences in the Merc; she also serves as Chair of Friends for the Cure, a group focused on funding research to end Type 1 diabetes, which she founded after her daughter was diagnosed with this devastating disease. To date, the group has raised over $3 million.

Wallace G. Weisenborn

Futures Hall of Fame 2017

Wally Weisenborn was a leading figure in the Chicago futures trading community for more than two decades before his retirement in 2000. He began his career at Harris Bank in 1953 and worked there for more than 25 years.

From 1969 to 1979, he was the head of the bank's commodities, securities and agribusiness division, and under his leadership the bank became one of the principal financial backers for the Chicago exchanges and clearing organizations and a leading banker for Chicago’s clearing firms, at a time when the futures markets were undergoing a period of explosive growth.

In 1980 he moved into the futures brokerage business, starting with Shatkin Trading and then LIT America. During his time at LIT, the company acquired several other futures trading companies, including Goldberg Securities, Rialcor and G.H. Miller, and it became the largest brokerage and clearing firm at the Chicago Board of Trade and a major presence at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange. After LIT was acquired by First Options, he joined Quantum, a futures brokerage subsidiary of ING, as its president in 1994.

During his career, Wally served on many industry committees, including as a member of the CBOT board of directors and as chairman of the exchange's business conduct committee. He also served on the FIA board for five years and the board of the National Futures Association for 16 years.

Alan Whiting

Futures Hall of Fame 2017 (Posthumously - 1946-2015)

Alan Whiting, who sadly passed away in June 2015, made a significant and lasting contribution to the futures industry in three core areas – as Head of Financial Regulation at Her Majesty's Treasury in the early to mid-1990s; as Executive Director of Regulation and Compliance at the London Metal Exchange from 1997 to 2004; and then latterly as Chairman of NYSE Life from 2012 to 2015. While at HM Treasury he oversaw the structure, legislation and oversight of the UK's banking and financial services regulation, playing a key role in developing financial regulation reform and the creation of the Financial Services Authority, which became the FCA.

It was for his role at LME that he is perhaps best known. He was appointed to the role in 1997 in the wake of the Sumitomo copper trading affair, tasked with enhancing the exchange’s regulation and compliance function and beginning the process of restoring confidence in the market. The cornerstone of this restoration was the implementation of a series of policies and measures that arose from 1998 landmark document “Market Aberrations: The Way Forward.” The most important of these measures was the introduction of the Lending Guidance, used to this day by the LME to deal with dominant positions at the exchange. During his time at LME, he was also at the forefront of the introduction of LME Select, the exchange's electronic trading system, in 2001.

In addition to his position on the Liffe Board, he also held non-executive directorships on a number of boards, including The Banking Standards Board and NYMEX Europe Ltd.